Cardinals begin voting for new pontiff, black smoke signals no one chosen; four ballots planned today

What’s next

9:30 a.m. Rome time (eight-hour difference from San Diego): Prayer in the Sistine Chapel, two voting possibilities.

12:30 p.m.: Cardinals retire to their hotel for lunch.

4:50 p.m.: Two ballots scheduled.

VATICAN CITY 
Cardinals begin the process of choosing a new pope in earnest today, holding their first full day of voting for a leader to face a major crisis in the Roman Catholic Church.

The 115 cardinal electors return to the frescoed Sistine Chapel, where they are scheduled to hold two votes this morning, and if needed, two in the afternoon, seeking to elect a pontiff capable of facing a string of scandals and internal strife. The first ballot today is set for 9:30 a.m. Rome time; the afternoon session at 4:30 p.m. (There is an eight-hour time difference between Rome and San Diego.)

When a pope is elected, white smoke will emerge from the chapel and the bells of St. Peter’s will peal.

The cardinals were shut inside on Tuesday for the first time, after a day of religious pomp and prayer to prepare for the task. One vote was held on Tuesday night, ending inconclusively as expected, with black smoke billowing from a chimney above the chapel to signal no pope had been elected.

Excited crowds braving rain in St. Peter’s Square cheered all the same.

“It’s black, it’s black, it’s waaay black!” screamed Eliza Nagle, a 21-year-old University of Notre Dame theology major on an exchange program in Rome, as the smoke poured from the 6-foot-high copper chimney at 7:41 p.m.

“They definitely got the color right this time,” agreed Father Andrew Gawrych, an American priest based in Rome, referring to the confusion over the smoke during the 2005 conclave that elected Pope Benedict XVI.

That was thanks to special smoke flares — akin to those used in soccer matches or protests — lit in the chapel ovens to make the burned ballots black, the sign that cardinals must come back for another day of voting Wednesday.

Surrounded by Michelangelo’s imposing frescoes portraying the beginning and the end of the world, cardinals locked themselves into the Sistine Chapel following a final appeal for unity by their dean and set about the business of electing the 266th pope.

No modern conclave has reached a decision on the first day, so the lack of an outcome on Tuesday’s single vote was no surprise. The initial vote is seen as a way of filtering the choice down to front-runners for discussions in following days.

Most bets are on a decision by Thursday, although there was no clear favorite as the conclave began, and it could take longer.

No hint is expected to emerge before the pope is chosen. The Vatican has taken precautions, including electronic jamming devices, to prevent leaks from inside the conclave.

The new pope will take up a burden Pope Benedict declared in February was beyond his physical capabilities.

The Church is reeling from a child abuse scandal and the “Vatileaks” case in which Benedict’s butler revealed documents alleging corruption and infighting inside the Curia, or central bureaucracy. It has also been shaken by rivalry from other churches, the advance of secularism, especially in its European heartland, and problems in the running of the Vatican bank.